US-based Tanzania activist protests after Meta deletes Instagram accounts

 

US-based Tanzanian activist Mange Kimambi. [Courtesy, Instagram]

US-based Tanzanian activist Mange Kimambi has protested after Meta, formerly Facebook, deactivated her Instagram account.

Mange, who has lived in the US since 2012 and a vocal critic of the Tanzanian government, accused President Samia Suluhu’s administration of instigating the removal of her accounts that she has been using to mobilise Tanzanians against the government ahead of the Dec 9 protests.

The activist on Thursday wrote an urgent letter to United States President Donald Trump, accusing Meta of unjustly shutting down her social-media accounts. 

She argued that the deactivations have silenced one of the few remaining channels documenting alleged human-rights abuses in her home country.

In the letter, which she shared on X, Kimambi said Meta removed her Instagram accounts, including her personal page and a popular news platform, as well as her WhatsApp line.

This, she said, came shortly after she used them to highlight alleged state-linked kidnappings, killings, corruption and the suppression of opposition politics ahead of Tanzania’s 2025 general election. 

Kimambi has, however, been accused by Tanzanian authorities of inciting the October 29 election violence that left hundreds of protesters dead, sparking calls for her arrest.

In an interview with the BBC, a Meta spokesperson, the parent company of Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp, said Kimambi’s Instagram accounts had been removed for violating its ‘recidivism policy’.

Tanzania government spokesman Gerson Msigwa told the broadcaster that the activist should provide proof of her claims.

“We don’t allow people to create new accounts that are similar to those we’ve previously removed for violating our Community Standards,” said Meta.

Meta also confirmed that it blocked Maria Sarungi-Tsehai’s Instagram account in Tanzania after a legal order from the government.

The move has sparked outrage among digital rights advocates, who accuse Meta of aiding President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s administration in silencing the issues addressed by the people.

Tanzanian Attorney General, Hamza Said Johari, last month publicly demanded the arrest of Kimambi and subsequent extradition.

The activist, popularly known as ‘Sister of the nation’ (Dada wa Taifa) by her peers, built her influence primarily through her social media platforms and began her campaign against the Tanzanian government during the presidency of the late John Magufuli in 2016.

Two years later, she unsuccessfully attempted to mobilise nationwide protests against his government.

In 2021, she publicly switched her stance and backed Suluhu when she took office after Magufuli’s death.

Kimambi, who once shared bromance with the presidency, is said to have fallen out with Suluhu after her first official visit to the US, where the two were photographed together.

Her critics dismiss her political activism and accuse her of using offensive language when criticising the president and other top government officials.

Sources in Tanzania say the activist already faces charges of economic sabotage, which came up in court in Dar es Salaam earlier in the week but was postponed to 28 January.

State prosecutors claim the matter was still under investigation and that Kimambi faces another count of money laundering in the case involving over $56,000, alleged to be proceeds of crime obtained in a period of three years.

It is alleged that she acquired the money by working as a journalist without accreditation and obtained payment through intimidation.

The case was initially filed on 28 August, alleging that she had obtained the money in 2022.

Kimambi, in her response, said the case was linked to her account with a Tanzanian bank that held $40,000.

She claimed her last transaction in the account was in 2023 and that it was frozen last year.

The development comes even as Western diplomatic missions in Tanzania pile pressure on Suluhu’s government to release the bodies of victims killed in the violence and free political prisoners.

The British High Commission, Canadian High Commission, European Union Delegation and 14 European embassies issued a joint statement calling for an independent inquiry into credible reports from domestic and international organisations showing evidence of extrajudicial killings, disappearances, arbitrary arrests and concealment of dead bodies.

"We deeply regret the tragic loss of lives and numerous injuries in the wake of the elections," the diplomats said in the statement.

Earlier on, Ghana, through its Ministry of Foreign Affairs, had called for credible, impartial and transparent investigations into Dar’s election violence.

Accra said it has observed with great concern the rapidly evolving political and human rights situation in Dar following the October 29 General Election.

In a statement, Ghana said a fair, inclusive and equitable process anchored in the rule of law will provide the victims, including those detained and the alleged perpetrators, access to due process guaranteed under the international human rights laws.